Unfiltered Story #56805

(I work in the box office of a local theatre owned by a relatively famous company. I’m very new and don’t quite know the ropes yet, and my office is getting irritated if I have to ask for help. We have free movies for members every month or so, all people have to do to reserve a seat is put their membership ID number into the site. Today, the phone has been ringing off the hook with people having issues with their ID numbers.)

Me: *emailing my manager* “Hey boss, I’ve had to give people their tickets as comp tickets because their numbers aren’t working. It’s happened to three different people so far. I think the system is having issues. What would you like me to do?”

Boss: “Make sure you’re imputing the membership IDs correctly. It worked just fine for me so you must be getting the numbers wrong.”

Me: “It just happened to a few other customers while I was waiting on your reply, and I was able to look up their member numbers and confirm them. It’s definitely the system and not a human error.”

Boss: “Fine, I’ll forward the email [Assistant Manager]. Go talk to him, I can’t help you right now. I’m busy.”

Assistant Manager: *comes to my desk* “It’s working fine for me. I just reserved tickets no problem. The people calling are just idiots. I’m too busy to hold their hands through this, so just deal with it.”

(Frustrated because of the dismissal, I keep fielding calls from confused members- who are luckily all polite and understanding- and issuing comp tickets manually for another hour. Finally it dies down, and I go back into my email and find this waiting on me:)

Department Email From Membership Manager of Parent Company: “Hello, [Boss], [Assistant Manager], and [Theatre Manager], I’ve gotten roughly ten messages in the past hour from people having trouble with their membership IDs and the system not recognizing them. Do we have any idea what’s going on? I’ve noticed [My name] issuing comp tickets to compensate, which is fine, keep doing that so they can reserve their tickets, but the system needs to be looked at ASAP.”

Boss: “Absolutely, we’ll look into this no problem! Thank you for telling us.”

Assistant Manager: “I’ll forward the emails to our IT department. They’ll get back to us soon. I’ll let [My Name] know to keep issuing comp tickets in the meantime.”

(The problem? Newer members hadn’t been properly registered in the system and weren’t being recognized as members. A simple, five minute fix that could have been issued much sooner if they’d listened to the new girl in the first place!)